• Question: If the earth collided with the sun what would happen the the earth will it break? or burn

    Asked by Ashleigh M to Connor, Jillian on 21 Jun 2015. This question was also asked by AmyJ.
    • Photo: Connor Macrae

      Connor Macrae answered on 21 Jun 2015:

      If a collision occurred – though this is extremely unlikely – the surface would bake before the actual collision. The closer we get to the Sun the more concentrated radiation and cosmic rays we would be impacted with. This will lead to the atmosphere and surface heating up dramatically and eventually blasting our atmosphere away – leaving us as a rocky surface like Mercury. The planet would not break however, just simply cook!

    • Photo: Jillian Scudder

      Jillian Scudder answered on 21 Jun 2015:

      It depends on how fast we get plunged into the earth – if it were very rapid, though the atmosphere would evaporate well before the Earth hit the sun, if the rock hadn’t had a chance to heat up and evaporate, it could shatter, and break into small pieces, the way something cold can crack if you put it in a hot oven. Under normal circumstances, when the sun gradually heats up and bakes the earth, it’s more likely that the earth will gradually evaporate over time.

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